The holidays are considered by many to be the best time of the year. For others, the traffic, hassle, and competitive nature of the season makes enjoying it nearly impossible. Thankfully, the Internet has resources for those of us who would choose to chop off a toe if it meant avoiding the holiday turmoil. Here are some ways to make it all easier:

Arrange Travel Online

Everyone knows where to get plane tickets online.  Expedia, Orbitz, PriceLine - with clever advertising and well-searched websites, they have the best prices available, right? Not necessarily.  Your first stop should always be:

Kayak

While they definitely aren’t the biggest name in the crowded online travel segment, they are considered by many to be the best.  Instead of working with one batch of prices, Kayak compiles from 140 different sources.  Reviews on sites such as ConsumerSearch, Kiplinger, PC World, and Washington Post seem to agree that Kayak is the way to travel.

Greeting Cards that Don’t Blend

Let’s consider the facts.  If you’re reading this article (and possibly taking notes) then you are probably one who doesn’t mind a little sarcasm with your holiday cards.  Most holiday cards are nice, sentimental, and rather boring.  They blend.  You - you’re a trend setter.  You want to be noticed, to stand out from the green and red, from the silver and gold.  For you, we offer…

SomeCards

Rather than describe it, you’ll get the idea from some of the text:

• You’re a hard person to half-assedly shop for
• Just wanted to help spread hope, peace, joy, and other marketing buzzwords
• There’s nothing like holiday cheer to offset devastating seasonal affective disorder

You get the picture.

Why Cook? Have it Delivered

It’s definitely less expensive to go to the store, pick out a turkey, ham, duck, or whatever suits your holiday fancy, then go home, prepare the food, cook it all up, make the side dishes, and present it in a beautiful.  Then again, you can just order it online and have it delivered.  DONE!

Impromptu Gourmet

With high marks from a few different sources, we gave the ordering process at Impromptu Gourmet a try.  We selected a dinner for 10 and took these choices:

• Gourmet Canape Assortment for starters
• Cajun Turkey as our Entree
• Red-Skinned Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Maple Glazed Carrots as our sides
• Multi-Grain Boule for bread
• Rocky Mountain Mudslide Cake for desert
• Holiday Celebration CD as our dinner music (yep, it comes with dinner music)

…all for $199.95.  Okay, before you run to the store, remember.  It’s once a year. Is the hassle really worth saving money?  If so, at least have the food delivered instead of going to the store:

Schwan’s

The selection is strong, the prices are reasonable, and the quality is as good if not better than what you can get at your average grocery store.  You’ll have to cook it, but at least you don’t have to get out and buy it.

Not in the US? Here is a resource for the UK as well as one for Australia.

Shop Online

One would think that this is the easy part with just about every retailer in the world (who wants to stay in business) offering some way to order and have products delivered.  While that may be the case, it doesn’t change the fact that some sites are made better than others and offer innovative ways to make it happen.

CheapCheapCheap

Did we mention “cheap”?  That’s the name of the site, and it definitely fits.  Rather than search for the best deals and specials on the various home sites of your favorite shopping places, CheapCheapCheap brings the specials to you.  They find the specials and post them, allowing consumers to search for and even rate the specials.  It’s a great concept, regardless of the mundane design of the site.

10 Best Online Wine Shops

Wine is a classy gift that is normally “put to use” shortly after it has been received and/or chilled.  Still, it’s a matter of taste and preference.  Rather than list dozens of sites, we’ll list one.  This article on FoodandWine.com breaks down the 10 best places to order.

eDivvy.com

Group gifting - great in theory, tough to make it happen.  At least it used to be.  Now, eDivvy.com gives people a way to select gifts from several online vendors and have the group gifting coordinated for you.  Instead of several little gifts, family, friends, or co-workers can pitch in the funds to get a great gift for someone.  eDivvy.com has an innovative interface that handles the email contacts, money collection, and sending of the gift to the recipient or the organizer.  It’s time to return the $15 CD’s and get your loved ones an iPod.

Hot Holiday Gifts, 2008

Bizrate has always been one of the best places to find items and compare the prices.  It’s huge database is comprehensive and the items are competitive.  This year’s guide to “Hot in ‘08″ is a nice way to get a wide assortment of gifts for different people all in one place.